Thursday, June 14, 2012

Dark Chocolate Cherry Galettes

Sour cherries
are a lot more common in Russia than sweet cherries. In fact, when I asked my
fellow Russian food bloggers for ideas on using sweet cherries in baking, most
of them said that they just eat sweet cherries out of hand, fresh, because the season
is so short in Russia and they’re expensive.

In Texas, the
opposite is true: sweet cherries can be found in pretty much any store in the
summer, but I am yet to see sour cherries. Fortunately, my blogging buddies
have not completely abandoned me and threw some ideas my way. The following
recipe is based on an idea offered by Irina, a blogger from Siberia.

Now, this recipe
uses a great American invention: thin pie crust :). What Russians call “pie” is
a pastry with a lot of yeast dough (not unlike that used for the cinnamon rolls)
and some filling, either sweet or savory. Those are nice, too, and I hope to
write about them in the future, but today I want to talk about a recipe that
uses traditional American pie dough.

These galettes
can be made with store bought pie crust (just shape it into one big galette
instead of 4 small ones), but the pie dough is so easy to make at home and is
totally worth it, with its buttery, natural flavor. My favorite pie crust
recipe comes from Rose Leavy Beranbaum’s book The Pie and Pastry Bible. It has a few more steps than most recipes, but the resulting pie
crust is exceptionally flaky and tender, and it works every time.

Dark Chocolate
Cherry Galettes

For the crust:

1 stick butter, cold

1 1/3 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

5 tablespoons heavy cream

For the filling:

5 oz sweet cherries, pitted

1.5 oz good quality dark chocolate, chopped, or chocolate chips

For the wash:

1 egg white

1 tablespoon milk

raw sugar for sprinkling

Make the crust:

Divide butter into 5 and 3 tablespoons. Cut
into 1/2 in cubes. Freeze the smaller portion; refrigerate the rest for half an
hour. Put flour, salt and baking powder in a large Ziploc bag and also freeze
for half an hour.

Pulse the flour mixture in the processor
to mix (do not discard the bag). Add the refrigerated butter and process for
about 20 seconds, until crumbly. Add frozen butter and pulse, until pea-size
pieces form. Add cream and pulse about 6 times, until dough holds shape if pressed
between fingers.

Place the dough in the bag and knead a
few times, until it holds shape. Divide into 4 pieces, shape each one into a
disk and refrigerate for at least one hour and up to 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 400F. Cover a cookie
sheet with parchment paper.

Roll each disc into circles about 8 inches
in diameter. Divide the cherries and chocolate evenly between crusts. Shape
into galettes, pinching the sides up and leaving a large opening in the center
(see photo). Lightly whisk egg white and milk, brush the tops of the galettes.
Sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake for about 25 min, until golden. The galettes
taste best when eaten on the same day.

Alina - your blog is outstanding! From the recipes, to the photographs, to the English text (even for those of us who don't need the practice ;-) !! It's finally cherry season here in Washington, so I'm going to try these galettes for sure.-Andra

I greatly appreciate your comments. There is nothing I like more than the two-way communication with my readers. Because I hate word verification I won't make you look at those squiggly letters... but I do have to moderate to protect from spam :).

About Me

Your search for authentic Russian recipes is over.

My name is Alina. Originally from Russia, I now live in Texas. Red Star to Lone Star, get it? :) I write both about the food from my home country and the new culinary discoveries I made after moving to America.